MOAS
by Ryley
Summary: What if Tony had a bigger Mother Of All Secrets than the reality of his relationship with Jeanne Benoit? This is my take on what it might be. Stand alone story and complete.


MOAS

by Ryley

AN: As Abby explained to Tony once in Season 5, MOAS stands for Mother Of All Secrets. In that episode he was thinking of his secret relationship with Dr. Jeanne Benoit, but that conversation started me thinking...What if Tony had another secret? An even bigger secret. Here's what I came up with. Please, let me know what you think.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own NCIS or the characters within. I am just borrowing them. I promise to put them back just the way I found them when I am finished playing like a good little girl.

* * *

The Navy cargo plane had taken off from the Israeli runway about an hour ago. Gibbs, Tony and Director Vance were alone in the rear of the plane.

Gibbs had been trying to fall asleep ever since they had taken off, but found himself unable to fall into the easy sleep he usually did on long flights. He felt oppressed by the weight of his decision to leave Ziva behind in Israel. It wasn't guilt plaguing him. He knew he had made the right decision for the team. He just had a feeling of dread he could not shake.

Across the plane, Leon Vance was mulling his own inner demons. Eli David, director of MOSAD had given him a file. Vance was used to these types of files. He had a dozen in his drawer under lock and key, however, he had never seen this file before today, and he felt he should have. Only the Sec Nav and the directors of NCIS were allowed to see it. He had scanned it for anything he didn't already know and been stunned. Now, he had to decide what to do with this new information. The file contained revelations that put a lot of things into perspective...things Gibbs should know, he decided.

"I received a file yesterday," he said to his companions. "It's something I think we need to discuss." He held up the plain manila envelope marked 'EYES ONLY'. He definitely had their attention now. "It's your file, DiNozzo. Apparently, I was kept out of the loop. Directors Marrow and Shepard both read it. Maybe this was an oversight, maybe not, irregardless, I know now."

Tony nodded slowly. "I figured you already knew and that was part of why you assigned me as Agent Afloat when you took over the Agency."

"No...that was just somewhere to put you to get you out of DC." He paused, then looked over at Gibbs, who looked positively mystified. Looking back at Tony, he asked, "Do you want to tell him or shall I?"

"My story. I'll tell it," Tony said. He sighed heavily, then started. "Abby and I had a conversation a few years ago about the mother of all secrets. She said they eventually come out. She was right."

Gibbs nodded. He had always felt that Tony was hiding something. He figured he would find out when Tony was ready. He wasn't convinced this was the time, but he knew that Tony would not back down now that the gauntlet had been thrown.

"My life is one big undercover op. More precisely, its a big witness protection detail...and I'm the protectee."

Gibbs was stunned. He wasn't sure anything could have really prepared him for this.

Tony continued, "I've never truly lied to you, Gibbs. Everything in my file since middle school is true. Even what you know about my childhood is true. It's most everything before I was eight that's a lie. I was born Gianni Lorenzo Stewart Giambetti, 13 October 1972 in Santa Margherita di Belice on the island of Sicily. I am the only child of Lorenzo and Evelyn Stuart Giambetti. We moved to Boston when I was two. I just have a few vague memories of Sicily."

Tony/Gianni paused as he collected his thoughts and tried to figure out how best to word what he needed to say. "I grew up more privileged than I have ever let on. Around the house, whatever I wanted, all I had to do was ask. As Nico--that was what everyone called me--I got whatever I wanted...except a normal life. My father is in import/export, as far as the IRS is concerned. Actually, he's numero primo on the FBI's East Coast organized crime most wanted list. As far as the FBI is concerned, I'm dead...at least I hope they still think so," he said looking at Director Vance.

Leon nodded silently. He had no intention of outing his agent to the FBI. Someone had determined a long time ago that there was no reason for the FBI to ever find out the truth.

Now Gibbs was really stunned. Organized crime...and DiNozzo...or rather Nico had grown up in the thick of it. "How the hell did you end up a cop?"

"Well...that's where the witness protection part comes in," Tony explained. "My mother was killed by one of my father's rivals when I was eight. It was a very well-planned car bomb. They made it look like an accidental fuel leak led to an explosion. My father knew otherwise. He also knew I was in more danger than ever before. Family was very important to my father. He never really had much time for me...he was a very busy man after all, but he loved me. He had always said he was untouchable." Putting on a thick Sicilian accent, he imitated his father, "Nobody dares to harm Lorenzo Giambetti's family. Back in Sicily they never touch us."

Tony shook his head, as he reverted back to his own voice, "Ha! He was an arrogant SOB. When my mother died, he got scared. He arranged for Nico to die...I never knew the details." He looked over to Vance. "I suppose its all in the file."

Vance nodded.

"I became Anthony DiNozzo, son of a wealthy industrialist from Long Island. The real Tony DiNozzo died in a sailing accident in the Aegean with his mother just a few weeks after my mother was killed. Lorenzo somehow persuaded Michael DiNozzo to replace his son with me. Since no one knew Tony was with his mother on the boat when it capsized in a storm off the Greek coast, there was no problem with Nico becoming Tony. No one except a few of Michael DiNozzo's friends, of which Lorenzo was one, knew that Alexis DiNozzo had taken his son away from him due to his drinking." Tony looked down at the file in Vance's hands.

"At first, everything was fine. Michael left me alone. Then, he started treating me like I really was his son. I guess the alcohol clouded his mind. He knocked me around and yelled at me, but in the next breath he'd be apologizing and trying to smooth everything over. That fall, he shipped me off to military school in Rhode Island and I never looked back. At school, I was Tony DiNozzo, but I still felt like Nico. No one knew me, so I didn't have to pretend to be something I wasn't. I just had to answer to the right name. I spent holidays with friends from school and I went away to camp as soon as summer break started."

Gibbs swallowed hard, trying to keep his anger in check. He finally knew what kind of man Tony's father was. He finally understood why Tony was so good at undercover work. In all his years of knowing Tony, he had never been able to understand how Tony's father could abandon such a wonderful kid...but now he knew. He had been abandoned by not one, but two fathers. It made so many things about Tony crystal clear to him. "When was the last time you saw Michael?"

"At my high school graduation...it just happened to coincide with a business trip to Providence. I don't think he would have bothered otherwise. He gave me a check for $50,000 and told me never to ask for another penny. Thing of it is, I never asked him for anything. I didn't know him and as far as I was concerned, he didn't owe me anything. I was determined to make it on my own. I cashed the check, but I socked it away in a savings account and didn't touch it except in the most dire of emergencies. It just sits there drawing interest."

This revelation surprised Gibbs. He had always figured that if Tony had that kind of money he would spend it. This meant Tony's expensive wardrobe was bought with his hard-earned money, not money from this barely touched savings account. Knowing this filled Gibbs with fatherly pride. Tony had made his own way.

"What about Lorenzo? Have you heard anything from him since becoming Tony DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked.

Tony nodded and bit his lower lip. "Yeah...you could say that. When he found out I had become a cop and was put on Philadelphia's organized crime task force, he let me know I wouldn't be able to make any connections between him and the Philly mob. I knew better than to try. I never buried a lead...I just didn't look for them."

"Is your father the reason you moved from one city to another every two years or so before coming to NCIS?" Vance asked. He had been listening to how Tony told his story. He knew the raw facts; he wanted the emotion behind them.

"Yeah...partly. Mostly though, I just never felt like I fit in anywhere else. I was starting to feel like Baltimore was a good fit, but then I came face to face with one of Lorenzo's 'associates' on an undercover case. He recognized me. Don't ask me how...he just did. He didn't blow my cover, but a few weeks later he was found by local fisherman. Maybe Lorenzo was still protecting me. I don't know for sure."

"Is Lorenzo the reason you went into law enforcement?" Vance wondered.

"I don't know. Maybe. It's funny...when I was a kid Lorenzo barely paid any attention to me, but in those days and weeks after my mother died, it was like I was all that mattered. Strange."

"He loved you. You were his son," Gibbs said. "Were you close to your mother?"

"More so than I was to my father. Even so, I think I can count on one hand the number of times she told me she loved me. What kind of mother doesn't tell her only child she loves him, Gibbs? An alcoholic one. You know when she would say it? When I poured her vodka martini just the way she liked it. The first time was when I was five. She was stone sober when I handed her the glass and I thought she really meant it...at least at that moment."

Gibbs felt his heart breaking. He had always sensed that Tony had deep emotional scars, but he never knew precisely what had caused them. Now, he felt as though he really knew Tony. He finally understood why couldn't commit to women and his need for approval. Tony's need to be the center of attention was definitely due to the lack of parental concern. "So, who got you started with the movies?"

"Our housekeeper. I called her Nona because she was the closest thing I had to a grandmother. I would sit in the kitchen with her while she cooked and we would talk about movies and act out our favorite scenes. I learned to cook from her, too. She made the best carbonara...it was always my favorite. On Saturdays, we went to the movies for the whole day. We would sit in the back so I could translate for her. She didn't speak much English." Tony stood up and stretched his legs. He started pacing the aisle.

"Italian was practically all that was spoken in the house. My father conducted all his business in Italian because my mother didn't know much. That way, if the Feds ever did catch up with him, she could truthfully say she knew nothing about his business. It was his way of protecting her, but it drove a wedge between them. Sometimes, she would ask me to translate something Father had written down, but I would always tell her I couldn't read his writing. It wasn't so far from the truth. His handwriting was bad enough to be a doctor's."

Gibbs smiled a little bit. "What sort of relationship did you have with your father before your mother died?"

"Well...like I said, he barely paid attention to me. We had an understanding. I stayed out of his study and left him alone whenever there were visitors in the house. When they had parties, Nona would give me my supper in the kitchen. Sometimes, she would give me money for the movies and have the gardener drive me. I bet most of the people who came to the house didn't realize I existed."

Gibbs shook his head in disbelief. He couldn't imagine how anyone could treat Tony with such callous disregard. "So...that story about being left in the hotel in Hawaii...is it true?"

"One-hundred percent. My only real lie is my name and my parents names," Tony said as he continued to pace. Even though it felt good to finally tell Gibbs, he suddenly felt like the walls were closing in on him. He had developed what he considered a healthy case of paranoia about his past. If he didn't think about it, it didn't really bother him. It was only when his past came up that he started to really get nervous.

Gibbs could see the tension rising in Tony's face and the way he carried himself. "Relax, Tony. We're miles above the ocean and it's not like either Vance or I are going to use this against you."

Tony seemed to relax a bit. "I know...it's just old habits, you know. You start building walls. When they come down, it's uncomfortable."

"Hey...you know my door is always open," Gibbs invited.

"Yeah...about that, Boss...now that you know about my past, maybe you should start locking it. You never know who will be coming around."

"Don't worry, Tony. I'll always have your back," Gibbs said with a smile.

Tony sat down next to him. "So, while we're being so open, Boss. How do you get the boats out of your basement?"

"Stick around long enough for me to finish the next one and I just might let you know. Better yet, help me build it and you'll get to see," Gibbs promised.

FINIS


End file.
